Dear Animal Lover,

Cornellians have a well-deserved reputation as animal lovers, and examples of their dedication to the well-being of animals abound.

The legend that a benefactor gave money to the university with that caveat that dogs must roam free on campus is a big (RED) tall tale!  The legend has been around for decades but was reinforced when Matt Ruff '87 wove it into his book Fool on the Hill.  Alas, the days of Fido lying in front of the blackboard or Fifi helping you count fruit flies are gone.  Cornell has a policy (2.8 Pets on Campus) prohibiting pets in university buildings (with a few exceptions such as guide dogs).  Pets are still permitted to stroll across the Arts Quad or through the Plantations, but they must be on a leash.  

For animal lovers and some alums (many of us remember dogs roaming the Arts Quad, running across the stage of Bailey while Prof Maas taught Psych 101 in the 70's, and sitting quietly next to their owners in lab), enforcement of this policy may came as a huge disappointment, but we must respect all members of the Cornell Community, remembering that some people are very allergic or afraid of even the gentlest and cutest furry friend.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Reader,

While reasons given for self-injuring can be diverse, self-injury is primarily used as a way to cope. Many individuals who self-injure report that feeling overwhelming negative emotion or emotional pressure are the most common triggers. Emotional numbness and sadness are also commonly cited. They report that self-injury provides a way to manage intolerable feelings or a way to experience some sense of feeling. Self-injury is also used as a means of coping with anxiety or other negative feelings and to relieve stress or pressure.

Understanding the purpose self-injury is serving for an individual, what kinds of events or interactions are triggering urges to self-injure, and identifying (and practicing!) other, more positive ways to cope are important for recovery from self-injury. Developing a support network of people to call and talk with in times of distress is also important. It's also important to realizing there may be relapses and that the road to recovery can be difficult.

The Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behaviors (CRPSIB) has a >variety of resources available on the project's website: www.crpsib.com The resources page may be particularly useful in further answering these questions (http://www.crpsib.com/resources.asp), especially the factsheets "What is self-injury?" (http://www.crpsib.com/userfiles/factsheet_aboutsi%284%29.pdf) and "Recovering from Self-Injury" (http://www.crpsib.com/userfiles/file/factsheet_recovery.pdf).

The website has a lot of information that may be of use to anyone interested in learning more about this topic, including how to help a friend you think may be self-injuring and information for parents about self-injury.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear H.C.,

Countless scholarly dissertations sought meaning amongst the taxicab conversations of that “Catcher in the Rye” kid. Where do ducks go in winter? Why don’t fish in Central Park freeze? Did the author know his fishy physiology – that saline in fish cells forestalls freezing? Did he know that “Salinger” is German for “salty, reclusive writer?”  (Please don’t put that saline-Salinger thing in your honors thesis — it is pure fiction.)

Instead, let’s toss the chilly fish piece to the Grounds Department’s Pete Salino (another salty guy), who says:

“The fish are year round tenants.  We try to keep the water circulating as long as possible during the winter but will eventually turn it off.  The small pond at the base of the feature doesn’t freeze because it is nestled in at the base of the slope and is surrounded by an abundance of organic matter.  The Gold Fish seem to be thriving as we have had an abundance of baby ones this Spring!”

“The water feature seems to spout magically from the A.D. White House hillside, right where Tower Road and East Ave come together.  The mossy, rocky, water-recirculating marvel was a bucket-list project of the retiring Director of Grounds, Dennis Osika ’64. It’s a charming, often overlooked “quiet space” in a raucous intersection of Central Campus.  The sound of falling water seems to mask the urban hub-bub.  You can lunch. Snooze. Watch the world go by. Let your bus go by.  Discuss fish in winter.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Lost and Confused,

The college years are a time when your focus changes from family and home to the college community and the discovery of which directions to focus on in life.  It can be a time of excitement and discovery, but also a time of exploration and stress.  Stress responses can be triggered by positive or negative experiences.  Stress can either motivate you or, as it seems now, result in fatigue, lack of focus, anxiety, and feelings of helplessness.

Many people who are high achievers have spent much of their pre-college life doing everything that is scripted to get you into a good college.  Now there is no script and it is up to you to do the exploring to figure out which path to take.  So you are not alone in your feelings and you do not have to struggle alone in your confusion.

The Engineering School has a wonderful Academic Advising Office with skilled advisors who have the time to listen to your story and help you figure out which direction to take.  They can help you explore acedemic options, study skill resources or possibly a referral to a counselor if that is what you think you need.

You have taken the first step by writing to me.  The questions you are adking are the questions all students your age should be asking.  I am heartened to hear that you are questioning your major and direction rather than just sticking with it.  So many students wait until junior or senior year to figure out what path is right for them and for some, that is very late in the game.

In order to increase the good days and decrease the bad days, keep track of what is going well.  A group called Cornell Minds Matter, suggests keeping a Memo Pad by your bed and each night jotting down 5 things that went well each day and what you did to make those things happen.  It is proven to be the one technique that is most likely to increase an individuals happiness.

Please go to Engineering Advising, http://www.engr.cornell.edu/resources/advising/.  Excessive or prolonged stress can lead to more physical, emotional or social breakdown and you don't need that. Good luck and keep me posted on your progress.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Bear Hunter,

Alert, alert! Alarms always go off in the Bureau of College Prank Prevention when questions like yours come in.  Will the same fate befall a venerable stuffed bear— as happened to the Stimson Hall moose head, possibly the actual icon of the Bull Moose political party and now the life of the party in some frat house basement — or so the story goes?

Now you understand why Dear Uncle must administer the Oath of Confidentiality and Taxidermy Nonviolence —before disclosing the answer: Regrettably, there are no stuffed bears in the University’s official collections. Nada.

The Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates—located in the Lab of O’s Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road (a swampy, shady place where living bears might feel at home) does have a few bear skulls. Also, entire bear skeletons that could be reassembled into bony likenesses, if anybody took the trouble. “And a bearskin rug that belonged to a grandfather,” says the museum’s Collections Manager, Charles Dardia. “Maybe in some frat house basement.” he ventures, but absolutely no “taxidermized” bears are in official Cornell University collections.

See for yourself, at any of the University’s natural history collections, listed here: http://cumv.bio.cornell.edu/visitor_info/cu_other_collections.html.

Most such are open by appointment and for tours. 

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Reader,

You can find a Notary in Day Hall or in the Campus Store.  Here are the locations on and off campus, http://www.cornell.edu/search/index.cfm?id=530&q=&tab=facts.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Club Member,

Here is the word from the SAFC:

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Michael, Wee U.G.,

The Law Library in Myron Taylor Hall is open to all students (and indeed, to the public) during regular operating hours. Those Law Library hours generally end at 8 p.m. (5 p.m. on Saturdays) at which time library staffers circulate about, politely announcing the closing (no P.A. system—how cool is that?).

After closing time, enrolled Cornell law students, faculty and staff alone have access (by swiping their i.d. cards) to exterior doors of the building and to locked spaces in the Law Library.

All this according to Pat Court, the Associate Law Librarian, who says the most picturesque place (in her opinion) is the Reading Room on the third floor.  Study carrels are assigned to individuals, so forget about getting one of those until you’re admitted to the Law School.

About your “midnight raves,” the Associate Librarian knows nothing (apparently there’s enough “glitz and glamour “ in the daily library biz to suit her) but Your Uncle suspects one thing: Cornell Law students are really smart people; they work hard, and are learning their way into an exclusive order of their peers; and they’re not likely to prop open the door with a soda can at midnight.

Uncle Ezra   

Dea Worried Mom,

A call to the Cornell Vet Clinic might shed some light on the situation.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Stair Climber,

Although it’s not quite so obvious from the lobby, there is a nicely appointed “Womens Restroom & Lounge” (according to the sign for Room 144) just down the hallway and heading North.

There’s probably no discriminatory-design story connected with Baker Laboratory, which opened in the 1920s for both women and men, even then. And (Your Uncle sincerely hopes) no misogynistic male chemists way back then who said: “If we hide the little girls’ room upstairs, maybe they won’t take so darn many bathroom breaks.” Let’s hope not.

But if you’re interested in the history of single-sex buildings around here, check out the recently published “Sage Hall: Experiments in Coeducation and Preservation at Cornell University” by Jennifer Cleland and Robert P. Stundtner. Sage Hall, which now houses the Johnson Graduate School of Management, originally was “Sage College,” a self-contained women’s residence, dining and classroom building.  Oh, the stories those ornate brick walls could tell!

Uncle Ezra